The Renaissance Mythographers

Abstract

The reception of ancient Greek and Roman mythology took many forms during the Renaissance, but the Renaissance mythographers offered the most comprehensive, lucid, and appealing reformulation of the material. The Renaissance justified the study of pagan mythology on the assumption that the myths contained hidden truths that the wise ancients hid under the veil of myth, including the idea of the one true God. This chapter presents a brief overview of the four great Italian mythographers such as Giovanni Boccaccio, Lilio Gregorio Giraldi, Vincenzo Cartari, and Natale Conti. Giraldi's approach is etymological, drawing on the epithets associated with the gods and expanding their meaning. Cartari's approach is iconographical and fits in with the title of his work, the Imagini. Like Cartari, Conti discusses the history of religions, their sacrificial practices, and the statues and paintings they inspired.

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